


it's wondrous out here (but not for the timid)

by LaMaupin



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Star Trek AU, complete with space and unexplained phenomena and lots of technobabble, the starfleet academy au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-04 03:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaMaupin/pseuds/LaMaupin
Summary: A month ago Kimberly Hart was the top of her class at Starfleet Academy. Now, her career depends on being able to work with four other troublemaking cadets. And what should be a straightforward training mission has other plans for them.Star Trek AU





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This happened because I was watching a lot of The Next Generation, so there's that.
> 
> You don't need to be familiar with Star Trek, but I did try and keep it as canon compliant to the universe established in TNG/DS9/VOY as possible (excepting Nemesis because fuck Nemesis). In case you are completely unfamiliar with early 90s sci fi, some things you should know:
> 
> 1\. It's set about five years after the end of the Dominion War, which was a giant conflict for control of the quadrant that militarized Starfleet to some extent. So that makes the year 2380. (In show terms that's five years after the end of DS9 and three or so years after the end of Voyager).
> 
> 2\. In the 24th century Starfleet is organized into three color coded tracks: Command wears red, Operations (security/tactical/engineering) wears gold, and Science and Medical wears blue. 
> 
> 3\. Tricorders are those hand held scanners they use that beep and can do pretty much anything the plot requires. Phasers are not lasers but pretty much lasers. No one actually knows how stardates work w/r/t calendar dates. Runabouts are a type of small ship that's bigger than a shuttlecraft but smaller than an actual long haul space ship.
> 
> Alright, I think that covers all the bases, but really these are just details, and not all that important to the story.
> 
> "It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid." - Q, Q Who

**STARDATE:** 57349.7

 

“Cadet Kimberly Hart please report to the Commandant’s office.”

“Acknowledged,” Kim says, tapping her communicator.

She’s known this was coming ever since she’d been put on probation but that doesn’t do anything to stop the sinking feeling in her gut. It’s been nearly a month with no word about discipline other than a mandatory psych evaluation, and she was just starting to let herself hope that maybe she won’t be the first Hart ever kicked out of Starfleet Academy. But it appears her luck has finally run out.

Thankfully she doesn’t run into anyone on her way across campus. The Commandant’s office is on the other side of the parade ground from the dorms, but exams just ended and everyone’s out enjoying the nice weather. Well, except for the other fourth years who are preparing for their first unsupervised training missions.

She doesn’t think she could face any of her classmates right now. She’s done her best to avoid them for the last month, but that hasn’t stopped the curious looks and the rumors spread by Amanda and Harper. Not that they’re really rumors if they’re true.

But the knowledge that they’re all getting mission assignments doesn’t do anything but remind her of how lonely she is. She’d been popular. Ever since she got to the Academy she’d been surrounded by people she’d thought were her friends. But they're all gone now, avoiding her like the pariah she is. The pariah she deserves to be.

It wasn’t long ago that Kim was looking forward to the missions, just like everyone else. She’s top of her class in flight and navigation and was sure to be chosen as a mission leader. But she’d thrown that all away, and now she’s on her way to be kicked out of school.

Way to go Kim.

She’s so caught up in her thoughts that she’s outside the Commandant’s office before she realizes how far her legs have taken her. She isn’t sure how long she’s been standing there, staring at the door, but it’s long enough to attract attention from passers by.

She straightens her uniform, attempts to swallow her shame, and rings the bell.

The door slides open to reveal Admiral Zordon seated behind his desk, along with Captain Malkor and four other cadets. She blinks, taken aback by the presence of her classmates. Every time she’s closed her eyes for the past month she’s imagined how this meeting will go, but she’d never thought to include four of her classmates in her ultimate shame.

“Now that you’re all here we can get started,” Admiral Zordon says when Kim enters. There’s a hint of rebuke in his voice at her lateness and she works her jaw, trying not to let the guilt she’s feeling show on her face.

Kim doesn’t know the other cadets, but she recognizes Jason Scott and Billy Cranston from various classes over the years. The other two - a tall guy whose uniform is trimmed in yellow and an angry looking girl wearing science blue - she doesn’t recognize. She thinks they might be in her year, but she has to admit that she barely knows anyone who isn’t Command track.

They all look as uncomfortable as Kim feels and the fact that Captain Malkor, the head of discipline, is also there doesn’t help.

“As you know, all five of you have been placed on disciplinary probation pending review,” Zordon says without preamble.

That she’s not the only one in trouble comes as a surprise to Kim. She vaguely remembers hearing something about Jason Scott getting in trouble at the beginning of the term, and he’s definitely lost some of his golden boy luster, but everyone knows that Billy Cranston is the best engineer to come through the Academy in a decade. He’s definitely not the type to get in trouble.

“You have all demonstrated a lack of judgement and an inability to work with other, which on their own are enough to disqualify you from being commissioned into Starfleet,” Zordon continues, looking at each of them in turn. It takes all of Kim’s willpower to meet his eyes, and when she does, she knows without a doubt that he’s right. She doesn’t deserve to wear this uniform.

Zordon pauses, letting them squirm. It has the desired effect.

“However, all five of you have otherwise been exemplary cadets with unique skills that could be of great benefit to us. So you are being given a second chance to prove that you are Starfleet material. The five of you are being sent on a mission to survey a rare atmospheric event that has been detected on a moon in the Angelus system.”

Kim lets out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. A second chance. She might not be leaving San Francisco in disgrace after all.

“Make no mistake,” the admiral says, steepling his fingers in front of his face. “This won’t be an ordinary training mission. You will be evaluated on your ability to work as a team and accomplish your mission, and if your performance is not deemed satisfactory you will be released from the Academy without a commission. Captain Malkor will accompany you as an evaluator, but will not interfere with your mission and is not to be used as a resource.”

Malkor is known for being a hardass. If he’s in charge of their final evaluation then there’s hardly even a point in trying. They might as well just expel them and not waste the resources. He narrows his eyes and looks at each of them suspiciously. “Don’t think that you can get anything by me. Better students than you have tried and failed.”

Admiral Zordon clears his throat. “Cadet Scott, you will command the mission. You are free to allocate your team and your resources as you see fit.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jason says, accepting the PADD with the mission briefing from Malkor.

A month ago Kim would have been annoyed that he’d been given command over her, but now all she feels is relief. After what she’d done the last time she’d been given command, well, she wouldn’t trust her either.

She doesn’t trust her.

“You’re to report to the USS _Hood_ at 0800 tomorrow for transport to Starbase 257. From there you will requisition supplies and be assigned a runabout for the duration of the mission. The details are all in the mission brief.”

Zordon dismisses them, but the weight of what he said hangs heavily on the group, even as they file out of the room. Work together and impress the practically unimpressible Malkor and you might not be expelled. No pressure or anything.

Kim isn’t sure how to feel. On the one hand she’s relieved that her expulsion has at least been delayed by a couple of weeks. She won’t have to disappoint her parents quite yet. But now the fates of four strangers are tied to her own, which is something certainly none of them deserve.

The others seem equally uneasy with the assignment, standing awkwardly outside the office.

“We should go over the mission brief,” Jason says as the others start to disperse.

“Starbase 257 is nearly three weeks away at average warp,” the tall guy in yellow says. “We’ve got plenty of time to go over the mission. And I’ve got stuff to do before we leave, so see ya later boss.”

He gives Jason a mock salute and leaves.

“Cadet Taylor has a point,” Billy says sympathetically. “I need to secure my projects before we go to prevent another accident.”

Jason sighs and runs his hand through his hair. “Fine.”

Billy leaves and Kim realizes she’s the only one left. The other girl’s already gone.

“I don’t suppose you want to over the brief?” Jason asks sheepishly.

Kim shrugs. She doesn’t want to but she really does need this mission to go well. “Send me a copy and I’ll go over it tonight.”

She starts to head back to her quarters but Jason follows her. “Kimberly. C’mon. Let’s go over it together.”

Something about the way he says it gets under her skin. It’s too much like the weedling invitations she’s heard from guys the entire time she’s been at the Academy. Too much like the way Ty used to try to distract her when he wanted attention. So she stops and turns to face him. “I’m not gonna sleep with you, Scott. Even if you weren’t technically my commanding officer for this mission.”

In the past she probably wouldn’t have been so blunt, but she doesn’t have it in her to care about Jason Scott’s feelings right now.

“No, that’s not...I’m not trying to sleep with you,” Jason stammers, turning as red as his uniform. “I was going to make you my second in command, and I want your advice on the mission assignments. That’s it.”

That stops her. “Why do you want my advice? You’re top of the class in half our courses.”

“And you’re top in the other half,” he says, blush fading. “Look, this mission is a big deal for us. You heard the Admiral - if we don’t do well we’ll get expelled. And I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be kicked out right before graduation.”

He’s right, as much as Kim hates admitting it. The whole point of this exercise is teamwork. Although she’s not sure her advice will help.

She sighs. “Fine. Send me the brief and we can go over it tonight.”

Jason grins and Kim can’t help but feel guilty. No one should be trusting her to make sure this mission goes well. But it’s not like that have any better options.

 

 **STARDATE:** 57350.2

 

The quarters they’re assigned on the _Hood_ are tight, with two rooms for the five of them split up by a small common area. Captain Malkor is given quarters near the other senior officers but he makes it clear that he’ll be monitoring their mission activities.

By the time Kim gets to their room the other girl has already claimed the bottom bunk. She doesn’t acknowledge Kim as she tosses her bag up onto the top bunk and tries to make herself comfortable. It’s not easy, given that the room is even smaller than her quarters at the Academy, but if the point of this mission is teamwork then the living situation is certainly doing its job.

“I’m Kimberly, by the way,” Kim says, sticking her hand out. “If we’re going to be living together for the next couple weeks we should probably get to know one another.”

The other girl doesn’t look up from the data PADD she’s reading, ignoring Kim’s outstretched hand. “I know who you are, Kimberly Hart. But you don’t even know my name, do you?”

Kim bristles. Who even is this girl? They’re supposed to be working together and she’s not even making the barest effort at politeness. “Trinity Gomez, fourth year cadet. Science track, with a specialty in planetary geology and atmospheric science.”

“I see you’ve read my file. Good talk.” She pulls the curtain on her bunk closed without looking up from her PADD.

Before Kim can respond their door chimes and Jason sticks his head in. “If you’re all settled in, we’re going to have a mission briefing.”

Kim shakes her head and follows Jason out into the common area, where Billy and the other guy - Zack she reminds herself - are already sitting at the small table. She sits down, trying not to let her interaction with Trinity bother her, but she can’t help it when the other girl takes the seat across from her.

Kim meets her eyes but quickly looks away, not sure why she feels suddenly compelled to prove herself. But they’ve got three weeks before they get to the starbase, and Kim’s charming. People like her. She’s going to win Trinity over eventually.

Kim’s startled out of her thoughts by Jason, who pulls up an image of a moon on the viewscreen and starts the briefing. “As you all should know by now, a long range probe detected an atmospheric disturbance on a moon of Angelus IV. Right now it looks like an electromagnetic storm, but it’s been at least a week and it hasn’t dissipated. We’re being sent to do a full scientific analysis of it and report back with anything of interest. It should be pretty basic, but you all know what’s on the line here.”

“Yeah, our careers depend on how much we impress Captain Asshole,” Zack says, rolling his eyes.

“Look, I’m not happy about Malkor being sent to babysit us either,” Jason says, looking around the table intently. “But we’ve been instructed to proceed as if he’s not there. We’ll just have to make do.”

“Easy for you to say,” Trinity says. “You’ve been put in command.”

“Which means that if any of you fuck up it’s my ass on the line,” Jason shoots back.

“Jason Scott, the golden boy,” she scoffs. “You think you’re so much better than the rest of us don’t you? But you’re here because you fucked up too.”

“The crazy girl’s got a point,” Zack says. “Why do you get to be in charge?”

Before Jason can respond Kim stands up. “The whole point of this damn mission is to show the brass that we can work together. They think we’re not cut out for Starfleet. Don’t prove them right. Jason’s in charge because he was put in charge. That’s how Starfleet works, dumbass.”

That shuts everyone up. Kim can feel Trinity watching her intently but she doesn’t look at her. Instead she sits back down, wishing she believed any of it.

“Thanks, Kimberly,” Jason says. “Uh, alright, on to the mission assignments. Kimberly, you’re second in command and in charge of flight and navigation. Put together a flight plan and itinerary for the mission. Zack, you’re on ops and tactical. Do a tactical assessment of the Angelus system and work with Kimberly to make sure we requisition all the supplies we’ll need. Billy, you’re the engineering expert. Familiarize yourself with the _Danube_ class runabout we’ll be assigned and make sure it’s in shape for the mission. Trinity, you’re science so the survey and analysis are yours.”

“Trini,” Trinity says, interrupting Jason. The rest of them look at her curiously “My name is Trini. Only my mother calls me Trinity.”

“Alright then, Trini,” Jason continues, sounding more confident than he has since they’ve gotten this assignment. “Work with Billy to make sure we have all the equipment you’ll need and draw up a research plan.”

Jason dismisses them and they all go off to start working on their various assignments. Before Kim can go start finding the star charts she’ll need Jason pulls her aside. “Hey, thanks for the save back there. I guess I’m not used to command yet.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Kim says, with more confidence than she feels. “Plus, I’m not sure this group would listen to anyone right away.”

Jason shakes his head. “We’re the top of our class. How did we end up here? Fighting to not be expelled.”

Kim studies him, not sure what to say. She doesn’t know him well but she knows he’s not stupid. She deserves to be here, just like the rest of them. Frankly, this chance is probably more than she deserves.

“Trini’s right,” she says eventually. “We fucked up, just like the rest of them.”

“I suppose that’s true.” Jason has the good grace to look ashamed at that, but not for long. He looks back at her and grins. “I knew I made the right choice making you my number two.”

Kim doesn’t respond. At least someone believes in her, even if his confidence is misplaced.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I give Trini the last name Gomez specifically because there's a character who shows up in probably two episodes of like, the second season of TNG named Ensign Gomez who I can almost justify being Trini's mom? 
> 
>  
> 
> Maybe


	2. Chapter 2

**STARDATE:** 57370.8

 

It takes them nearly three weeks to get to Starbase 257. In that time they do light duties on the _Hood_ under Malkor’s watchful eye and go over the mission details so many times Kim can recite them in her sleep.

By the time the _Hood_ nears their destination Kim’s starting to actually feel hopeful about their prospects. Working with Zack on the supply list had gone surprisingly well and the whole group is starting to almost feel like a team instead of just a random collection of misfits. Almost.

The problem is Trini.

Trini, who despite Kim’s best efforts seems unwilling to even try to be friendly to her. All she does is work and sit in their room reading. Although sometimes Kim can feel the other girl’s eyes on her when she’s not looking, and she doesn’t seem to have any shame about getting caught staring. It’s always Kim who looks away first.

She isn’t sure why it bothers her so much that Trini seems so uninterested in her friendship - it’s not like she has the best track record with friends anyways - but by their last night on the _Hood_ she’s fed up with the silent treatment.

She finds Trini where she always is when they’re not on duty or working on mission planning: sitting on her bunk reading something on her PADD. She looks up when Kim grabs the PADD out of her hands.

“Hey!” Trini protests, sitting up. “I was reading that.”

“Yeah well, there will be plenty of time for -” Kim glances at the PADD and makes a face, “Advanced spectroscopic theory later - really? You’re reading a textbook for fun?”

“It’s not for fun. It’s mission prep,” Trini says, crossing her arms and giving Kim an unamused look. “Can I please have it back?”

“No.” Kim grabs Trini’s arm and pulls her to her feet. She’s surprised that Trini lets her, but she tries not to show it. “Tonight we’re having fun.”

“Can’t. I’ve got work to do.” Trini tries to grab the PADD back but Kim holds it out of reach, using the four inches she has on her to her advantage.

“You’ve been on board an _Excelsior_ class starship for nearly three weeks and all you’ve done is go back and forth between this room and the science lab. It’s time to live a little.” Kim walks into the common area and tosses the PADD to Jason. “Hold onto this. And don’t let her have it back until I say so.”

Jason looks between her and Trini and shrugs, clearly missing something but willing to play along. “Do I want to know why?”

Kim shrugs and turns back to Trini. “C’mon. Don’t make he have Jason order you to have fun.”

Trini crosses her arms indignantly, but doesn’t say anything.

“Please?” Kim asks, changing tack. “I’m tired of hanging out with the guys and this might be my only chance to see a ship like this.”

Trini looks at her for a long moment before sighing. “Fine.”

Kim grins and grabs Trini’s wrist, pulling her into the corridor.

“Where are we going?” Trini asks when they get into a turbolift and Kim requests deck 12.

“It’s a surprise.”

Kim realizes she’s still holding Trini’s arm and drop it, trying not to seem as awkward as she suddenly feels. She clasps her hands behind her back and watches the lights flicker past the lift.

“The surprise is the shuttle bay?” Trini asks skeptically when the lift doors open.

Kim just leads her inside.

The lieutenant on duty gives them a questioning look. “Are you supposed to be here?”

“We won’t be any trouble,” Kim says. “We just want to look. I don’t know when I’m going to get to chance to see the new shuttles again.”

“Fine,” he says begrudgingly. “But don’t touch anything.”

Trini follows her over to the shuttles but Kim barely notices, too wrapped up in examining the ships. “You brought me all the down here to look at shuttles?”

Kim shakes her head. “Not just any shuttles. The new _Alpha 5_ class shuttles. They’re still in testing and only a handful of ships have them. They’re capable of warp 3 for nearly three days or warp 2 for a week, and the isometric thruster array means they handle significantly better than the old Type 7 shuttlecraft. We flew them in the simulators but that’s nothing like the real thing.”

“Wow,” Trini says with a soft laugh. “Who knew the great Kimberly Hart was such a nerd.”

Kim goes to retort but stops when she sees the tender way Trini’s looking at her - as if this single fact explained everything. She looks away, at a loss for words.

“I love flying,” Kim says eventually. She’s not sure why she’s telling Trini this, but she supposes that she owes her something after dragging her all the way down here. “Everyone thinks I joined Starfleet because of my family, but really it was to fly. No one has newer, faster ship than Starfleet. I feel so free when I fly. Like everything falls away and nothing else matters….my parents, my family and their expectations….they’re all just gone when I fly...There’s a lot riding on this mission for me I guess.”

“You’re not the only one.”

There’s a gentle rebuke in Trini’s words and Kim blinks, cringing when she realizes what she said. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that I’m the only one who cares about the mission.”

Trini sighs and looks away, fiddling with the hem of her uniform. “I failed my psych eval. That’s why I’m here. I, uh, need to learn how to work with people apparently….I’ve never wanted to do anything but be in Starfleet, and now I might get kicked out over something as dumb as a failed psych eval...so yeah, I care about the mission.”

“Well,” Kim says, bumping her shoulder against Trini’s and trying to ignore feeling in her chest. “We better not fuck it up then.”

Trini laughs humorlessly and shakes her head. “Good advice from the XO.”

Kim smiles but she feels that old familiar panic bubbling up, because here’s another person who deserves better than her. She looks at the shuttlecraft she’ll never get to fly and tastes the acid in the back of her throat. More than anything she hopes she doesn’t let yet another person down.

*** 

Kim takes Trini on a proper tour of the ship after they leave the shuttlebay, showing her hydroponics and the astrometrics lab and all the nooks and crannies Kim’s discovered in the past three weeks. It’s not much, and they can’t get into engineering or the bridge, but it’s nice to be out of their quarters..

Trini surprises Kim with how easy her companionship is. She’s quick with a wry comment, but there’s a warmth to them, like she’s happy to let Kim drag her around the ship.

It’s nothing like Kim expected.

Friendship with Amanda had been a sparring match - a constant competition to see who could get the best barb in at the other’s grades or hair or boyfriend. It had been fun at times, but Amanda never would have humored her like this. She would have rolled her eyes and told Kim she needed better hobbies. (But then again, if she were still friends with Amanda she wouldn’t be here would she?).

Ty wouldn’t have cared either...He would have bragged about flying the new shuttles in testing and then ignored her.

But Trini actually seems to enjoy Kim’s little tour in a way that doesn’t seem forced or fake. And the feeling that rises in Kim’s chest is something she hasn’t felt in a very long time. Since before Ty started treating her like a prize that he’d won.

But now isn’t the time for that.

The last stop on the tour is the science lab, which Trini insists on showing her. Kim wouldn’t normally care about the various instruments but Trini describes them with such enthusiasm that it’s hard not be interested. It’s endearing to see this girl  - who up until two hours ago had said maybe three words to Kim in total - get so excited about the positronic emission spectrometer and the long range particle sensor.

They bump shoulders as they walk back towards their quarters in amiable silence. Kim feels lighter than she has in a long time. Her guilt and shame from earlier not quite erased, but certainly dampened by the way Trini smiles at her.

The mood is broken when they turn the corner by the officers lounge and run straight into Captain Malkor, who gives them a suspicious look. “And what, may I ask, are you two doing at this hour?”

Kim freezes, not sure what to say. They don’t actually have a good reason to be here, and technically probably don’t have authorization to roam the ship after hours.

Trini comes to her rescue. “Cadet Hart asked to see the final research plan. We’re on our way back from the science lab now.”

Malkor narrows his eyes, as if he doesn’t believe her, but she keeps her face carefully blank.

He turns to Kim. “And I suppose you can confirm this, Cadet Hart?”

“Of course,” Kim says, casting around for something that would sound reasonable. Luckily, she’d already read Trini’s research plan. “I had some questions about the efficiency of the modified sensors, and Cadet Gomez was kind enough to show me her test data.”

He looks between them as if he wants to protest, but they just stare back, innocently. Eventually he shakes his head. “Carry on.”

As soon as they’re out of earshot Kim turns to Trini. “Thanks for the save back there.”

“No problem,” Trini says with a shrug. “The guy’s an ass. I wish he wouldn’t treat us like children.”

“To be fair, we are all here because we’re on probation,” Kim replies. “So he has reason not to trust us.”

Trini studies her, as if she’s trying to figure her out. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Don’t you?”

Trini shakes her head, and when Kim meets her eyes she finds sadness there, and understanding. “You deserve better than that, Kim.”

Trini goes into their quarters, leaving Kim standing in the hall. She wishes she could believe Trini, but she doesn’t know what Kim’s done. If she did, she wouldn’t be so quick to trust her.

Kim leans against the door and wonders just why she cares so much.

 

 **STARDATE:** 57373.5

 

“Approaching Angelus IV,” Kim says, double checking the heading on her display.

Finally. After three days in the runabout Kim’s about ready to scream. If she thought quarters were tight on the _Hood_ , well, the old _Danube_ class runabouts could technically accommodate six people plus scientific equipment, but it wasn’t comfortable.

Jason confirms their heading from the co-pilot’s seat next to her. “Slow to one-quarter impulse and establish geosynchronous orbit over the storm.”

“Slowing to one-quarter impulse,” she confirms, laying in the course adjustments.

“Anything on long ranger sensors?” Jason asks, looking over his shoulder Zack, who’s standing at the tactical station.

“Nothing on sensors,” Zack replies. “This system is as boring as expected.”

Malkor tsks slightly at Zack’s choice of words. Having the Captain along has done nothing for the mood in the runabout. If anything, it’s made the past three days even more tense, because while he’s not supposed to interfere in any way, he has an infuriating habit of making his (usually disapproving) opinions of all their decisions quite clear.

“Sorry, I mean it does appear to be uninhabited,” Zack corrects, eye roll apparent in his voice.

Jason ignores Zack’s sass and turns to Trini. “Any interesting readings on the storm yet?”

“All readings are in line with what we’d expect from an electromagnetic storm, but we’ll be able to get more accurate data once we reconfigure the sensors.”

Kim brings them into orbit around the moon. From this far up it doesn’t look like much - just a small, ugly rock with a thin atmosphere that can barely be considered habitable - but if all goes well it’s their ticket back into the Academy’s good graces. The EM storm takes up almost the entire hemisphere; near constant flashes of lightning cut tracts across the clouds, illuminating the upper atmosphere in shades of blue and purple and green.

It’s beautiful - like nothing she’s ever seen before. And it makes her even more determined to make sure this goes well - so she gets the chance to see things like this again.

“Geosynchronous orbit set,” Kim says, fixing their position and speed.

Jason nods and taps his communicator. “We’re good to go on the sensor arrays up here, Billy.”

“Okay,” Billy responds from where he’s manning the engineering station in the back. “It’s going to take me approximately three hours and thirty-four minutes to complete the change over. Assuming everything goes smoothly and the secondary coupling doesn’t short out, which is a possibility due to the way they laid out the sensor circuits in the late model _Danube_ class ships. Or really in any ship retrofitted to accommodate larger phaser arrays during the Dominion War.”

“Sounds good, Billy,” Jason says, cutting him off gently. They’re all used to Billy’s tendency to ramble by now, and while it’s endearing more than anything, he’ll talk about circuit designs for hours if they don’t stop him. “I’ll send Trini back to help you.”

Kim settles in for three hours of orbiting a moon, but before she can get comfortable her display flickers and she feels the ship shift ever so slightly in its orbit.

“Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Jason looks down at his display but whatever happened has already passed.

“I’m reading a minor fluctuation in the main power levels,” Zack replies. Kim’s relieved she’s not the only one who saw it.

“Billy, can you confirm?” Jason asks over his communicator.

“I saw it, but it wasn’t me,” Billy replies. “I’m not sure what happened but our main power level dipped for a second.”

“Could it be the storm?” Jason asks when Trini returns to her station in the cockpit.

Trini taps out a series of commands but doesn’t look up from her display. “I’ve never heard of a this type of storm interfering with orbiting vessels but it’s not impossible.”

Kim’s display goes dark and ship lurches. It’s like something is pulling them down towards the planet from what should be a stable orbit.

The helm comes back to life and she regains control, resetting their course.

“Take us out of orbit,” Jason orders.

Kim lays in a course but nothing happens. She tries again, this time taking manual control of the ship. Again, nothing.

“I can’t,” she says, trying to keep her voice level.

“What do you mean you can’t?” That comes from Malkor, who finally breaks his silence to approach the helm. If he’s getting involved things must be worse than she thought. And she thought they were about to lose control of the ship.

“I mean I can’t. The helm isn’t responding.”

“Raise the shields,” Malkor orders.

“Shields aren’t responding,” Zack reports.

The lights flicker and Billy’s voice comes in over the communicator. “The main computer is down. And power levels are at 70% and dropping.”

“Can you fix it?” Jason asks, his voice edged with panic.

The ship starts to shake, as if something is pulling it down towards the surface of the moon. Kim’s fingers fly over her controls, trying every combination of things she can think of but nothing works. Her console goes dark and the nose of the ship dips towards the atmosphere.

“Uh guys,” she says as the shaking intensifies. “I think we just lost main power.”

“Billy?” Jason doesn’t yell but his voice is about two octaves higher than normal.

“I don’t know what to do,” Billy says. “Nothing I've tried has had any effect and we’re down to 50% auxiliary power.”

Kim tries to think. Tries to remember what they taught her about emergency situations and crash landings. The fact that Malkor seems as lost as they are doesn’t help.

But the ship is breaking atmosphere and the hull is heating up and she’s afraid it’s going to shake itself apart.

Their angle isn’t that steep, so if they can keep the ship from breaking apart then they might have a chance of surviving. Which is a tall order considering the circumstances.

“Billy,” she says, an idea finally coming through the haze of imminent death. “Reroute all the auxiliary power to the inertial dampeners. There should be an emergency backup system for situations like this.”

“I can do that!”

The ship picks up speed as it careens towards the surface of the moon but it does stop shaking. Thankfully.

Kim looks at Jason and sees her own panic reflected back at her. What a way to go. They got their second chance and now they’re about the crash land on a moon no one has ever heard of and probably all die in the process. And the worst part is that it’s fucking ironic.

The ground is coming up fast and all Kim can think is that at least this way she won’t be a disappointment.

“Brace for impact!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Malkor is named after a villain from Power Ranger Megaforce who's like a weird mothman so make of that what you will


	3. Chapter 3

“Kimberly! Kim, c’mon, wake up.”

Kim’s head pounds and there’s a sharp pain in her arm and someone’s shaking her shoulder. Opening her eyes is harder than it should be, but when she finally manages it Trini’s face swims into focus.

Kim sits up slowly. The act of moving makes her whole body hurt. Her face sticks painfully to the console, and she’d really rather not think about the pool of drying blood she was laying in.

Trini hovers over her with a tricorder wearing a concerned expression. She’s more than a bit worse for wear herself - she has a long scratch down her arm and she’s favoring her left side - but she seems relieved now that Kim’s conscious. 

“You’re cute when you’re worried.” It just slips out before Kim can stop herself. But her head is fuzzy and her whole body hurts and the way Trini’s brows are furrowed is kind of adorable. 

“You’re concussed,” is all Trini says in response, but Kim hears someone - probably Zack - snicker in the background. 

“That makes sense.” Kim nods and then winces as a wave a nausea overtakes her.

Kim sits very still and focuses on not being sick everywhere while Trini digs in the medical kit that’s open on the seat next to her. She pulls out a hypospray and jabs it into Kim’s neck. Almost immediately her nausea subsides and her headache starts to abate.

“Better?” Trini asks, concern still evident in her eyes. 

“Much,” Kim says, gently touching the cut on her forehead and wincing when her fingers come away sticky with blood.

Trini swats her hand away. “Don’t touch it.”

“You’re bedside manner could use some work,” Kim teases. 

“When you two are done flirting can you come give me a hand?” Zack says from the other side of the cockpit.

Kim looks over at him and swallows the response that’s already on her lips when she sees what’s left of the runabout. The ship is still mostly intact, but exposed wires hang down from the ceiling and the computer displays are all cracked. It’s dark - lit only by a handful of emergency lights - and outside the viewport the storm still rages, making it impossible to see more than a few feet in front of them.

Jason’s still sitting next to her. At first she thinks he’s fine, until she sees the unnatural angle his leg is bent at and the pain that’s clear on his face. 

Zack tosses a piece of debris off Malkor, who’s collapsed near what’s left of the tactical station.

Kim pushes herself unsteadily to her feet and goes over to where Zack is hunched over Malkor’s body. He lies unmoving. Zack carefully rolls him over and Kim has to look away to keep herself from being sick - and this time not from the concussion. Malkor’s head is caved in, pieces of skull and something that looks a lot like brain matter poking through the bloody mess that used to be his face. 

“He’s…?” she asks, looking at Zack to avoid looking at the body in front of her.

“Dead, yeah,” Zack replies. “I didn’t like the guy but he didn’t deserve this.”

Kim doesn’t know what to say. She’s never actually seen a dead body before. Holodeck simulations sure, but nothing like this.

“Where’s Billy?” Jason asks through gritted teeth.

“Dunno,” Zack says, looking at where part of the bulkhead has collapsed, blocking the passage to the back of the ship. “He was in the back.”

Kim stands up, worried about Billy but glad to have something else to think about aside from Malkor’s rapidly cooling body. She puts a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Zack and I will go look for him. Trini, stay here and see what you can do about Jason’s leg.”

“I’ll try but I’m not a doctor,” Trini protests.

Zack looks at Jason’s leg and shakes his head. “Well you probably can’t make it worse.”

“You’re not helping,” Jason grits out and Zack just shrugs.

Kim inspects the collapsed bulkhead while the others bicker. There’s almost enough space for someone to crawl underneath it, but not quite.

“Billy, are you back there?” she calls, trying to work out how she’s going to clear the doorway.

There’s a scraping sound from the back. “Yeah. Uh, can you guys help me? I’m stuck.”

A tightness in her chest that she didn’t realize was there lifts when she hears Billy’s voice. He’s alive. Who knows for how long, but right now it’s enough.

“We’re coming, Billy,” she tells him. “As soon as we figure out how to clear the doorway.”

“I’ve got an idea about that,” Zack says, pulling out a phaser. “Stand back.”

Kim steps back and shields her eyes as Zack cuts away the metal. It fills the cockpit with acrid smoke but it gets the job done. The smoke makes her head spin, but she does her best to wave it away and ducks under the remains of the bulkhead. 

The crew cabin is in better shape than the cockpit, but that isn’t saying all that much. She finds Billy trapped under what looks like a piece of the ceiling.

“You okay?”

“I think so, but I’m stuck,” he says, trying to shift the large metal sheet that’s pinning him to the floor.

Zack joins them in the back and together they lift the sheet up enough for Billy to wiggle free.

“Is everyone else okay?” Billy asks, standing up and brushing dust off his uniform.

“Captain Malkor didn’t make it,” Kim replies. “And Jason’s hurt but he should be fine.”

“Oh,” Billy says, assessing the damage to the ship. “That’s bad. I mean, it’s good that everyone else is okay, but now we’re stuck in a dead ship on a barely habitable moon without an experienced officer.”

“You know,” Zack says, shaking his head. “I hadn’t considered how royally screwed we are, but when you put it that way…”   


“We’re gonna get out of here.”

Kim turns to see Jason limp into the room, leaning heavily on Trini.

“And how do you propose we do that?” Zack asks, crossing his arms. “Billy’s right. We’re just five screw ups that Starfleet didn’t even trust enough to send on a training mission without a babysitter.”

Jason sits down and looks at each of them in turn. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I'm not willing to just give up and die. We’ll set the emergency beacon and try to repair the ship.”

Trini and Billy exchange uneasy looks.

“What?” Jason asks.

“It’s just,” Trini starts, shifting uncomfortably. “With all the EM interference from the storm it’s unlikely the beacon will make it out.”

“Well then we’ll work on repairing the ship and see if we can outlast the storm.” Jason runs a hand through his hair. “How much food do we have?”

“Without the food replicators we have rations for a month and water for a week,” Zack answers. “Maybe a bit longer without Malkor.”

“How long before someone comes looking for us?” Kim asks. She knows the answer - not soon enough - but she has to ask.

“We aren’t supposed to be back at the starbase for two weeks,” Zack says. “I doubt anyone will notice we’re missing before that. Plus, what’s to say whatever happened to us won’t happen to anyone who comes looking for us.”

“Alright. We have a week.” Jason stands up, wincing but steady. “Starfleet doesn’t believe in us, but I do. If we work together we can do this.”

It’s cheesy, but it has the desired effect. Kim can see the determination on the other’s faces.

They can do this.

Probably.

 

**STARDATE:** 57378.7

 

Five days later they haven’t made any significant progress. Sure, they’ve fixed most of the damage to the ship, but it’s still not working. And the storm still rages right outside, forcing them to spend most of their time cooped up in the runabout.

“Okay, try it now,” Billy says, popping up from the jefferies tube that runs the length of the ship. “I hooked up the auxiliary power cell to the secondary power converter to bypass the field attenuator and jumpstart the main grid.”

Kim inputs the computer initiation command and when her display lights up, for the first time since the crash, she allows herself to hope. But before the computer can come  back online the lights blink out, leaving them in the semi darkness of the cockpit, lit only by the emergency lamps. 

“Dammit.” Kim slams her hands down on the display in frustration. What’s the point anymore? Nothing they’ve tried has worked, and they’re quickly running out of time, no closer to getting off this damn rock than they were when they started.

“That should have worked,” Billy says, examining his tricorder. “Unless the flux capacitor is misaligned and the field is dephasing…”

He disappears back into the jefferies tube, muttering to himself about technical specifications that Kim barely understands.

She sighs and heads to the back to where they others are trying to get the emergency beacon working.

“Could we use the tricorders to boost the signal?” Jason asks. He’s sitting at the table, his injured leg propped up in front of him.

“It’s not an issue of signal strength,” Trini says, checking something on her tricorder. “It’s this damn storm. It’s generating broadband interference across the EM spectrum, which is killing the signal. We’d have to go well into the far x-ray to get through, and there’s no way we can encode a signal on such a high frequency.”

“We could try using a probe to send the signal once it gets out of the atmosphere,” Zack suggests.

“All the probes were destroyed in the crash.” Jason pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks about as exhausted as Kim feels. None of them have slept much since the crash, but Jason’s taken the brunt of the overnight night watch shifts, in some sort of attempt to make up for his limited mobility. 

“What about a photon torpedo?” Zack asks. “We could modify it to send a subspace signal.”

“Sounds like a great way to accidentally blow yourself up,” Trini says skeptically.

“True.” Zack grins and gestures at himself. “Wouldn’t want to deprive you of this view. I know it’s the only thing keeping you going in these tough times.”

Trini glances at Kim and then rolls her eyes. “On second thought, that torpedo idea is great.”

“Can you guys please take this seriously?” Jason snaps. “If we don’t figure something out soon we’re going to die out here.”

The room goes quiet, the only sound the howl of the storm outside and the soft hum of the stasis field they put Malkor’s body in. Trini’s face goes blank but Zack looks thoughtful.

“You know what we need?” Zack says eventually. “A night off.”

“We have two days worth of water left and you’re suggesting a night off?” Jason asks incredulously.

“Yeah. We’ve been working non stop since we got here. Everyone’s tired and stressed. Last I checked those things aren’t exactly ideal problem solving conditions.” Zack says it with a sincerity that surprises Kim. And he isn’t wrong. They could all use a break. “The crisis will still be here in the morning.”

“The idiot’s got a point,” Trini says. “We could use a break.”

“Aww, the crazy girl agrees with me!” Zack says, ruffling Trini’s hair. “I can die happy.”

Trini swats his hand away. “Touch me again and you will die, but it won’t be happily.”

“Bet you wouldn’t say that to Kimmy,” Zack says with a smirk.

Trini’s eye widen and she turns red.

Kim’s face heats up and she stares at the table, suddenly uncomfortable. It’s not like she hasn’t thought about the exact thing that Zack is suggesting, but she doesn’t need everyone knowing that. 

She’s well aware that her feelings for Trini aren’t strictly friendly, but they're crew mates stuck on a stranded ship with days left to live. Not exactly romantic. Besides, even if Trini does feel the same, she deserves better than Kim. 

“It’s like you want her to kill you,” Jason says, shaking his head, but he can’t hide the hint of amusement in his voice.

Before Zack can reply, Billy pops up out of the jefferies tube, saving Kim from the rest of the conversation.

“Any luck?” Jason asks, turning to Billy.

“It’s strange,” Billy says, shaking his head in confusion. “I can’t find anything wrong with the ship. It’s like something external is draining our power.”

“Weird,” Zack says, going over to the supply crates at the back of the cabin. “But that sounds like a problem for tomorrow. We’re taking the night off.”

“Oh, okay,” Billy says. He seems mildly confused but he joins the rest of them at the table. 

“What do you propose we do with this night off?” Jason asks. 

“Extra rations for start,” Zack says ash he tosses them each ration packs.

“Oh joy, more disgusting rations,” Trini says, unimpressed.

“And this.” Zack puts a bottle of amber liquid down on the table.

Kim inspects the bottle and looks at him in disbelief. “Where did you get a bottle of Vulcan brandy?”

Zack shrugs.

“I picked it up when we were at the starbase. I figured we could use it to toast our eventual non expulsion from the Academy. But now is as good a time as any considering the circumstances.” He pours them each a glass. “What should we toast to?”

“To being the first cadets to die in a training accident since the war?” Trini suggests.

Kim laughs humorlessly, because they really have managed to fuck up spectacularly. It’s almost hard to believe.

Jason shakes his head. “Well that’s a bit morbid. How about to not dying alone.”

“That’s almost as morbid,” Kim says skeptically.

“Do you have a better idea?” Jason asks.

She doesn’t. Because what do you drink to when you’re stranded on a deserted moon with little hope of rescue? That wasn’t something they’d covered in her Academy courses.

“To friendship,” Billy says. “Because I didn’t really have many friends before this, well aside from Jason, and now I have all of you. We are friends right?”

They all chorus their agreement. He’s so earnest that no one can say no. And maybe he’s right. Maybe they are friends.

Kim’s eyes find Trini across the table and she wonders just what she’s done to gain these people’s trust. She doesn’t deserve it - their friendship. And if they knew what she’d done they wouldn’t want it.

They toast to friendship and all Kim can taste is guilt and regret.

A long moment passes. Kim sips her drink and wishes she knew what to say.

It’s Zack who finally breaks the silence. 

“I figure that if we’re gonna die out here we might as well get to know each other.” He smiles wryly. When no one else speaks he shrugs. “I’ll go first...I only joined Starfleet because of my mom. She’s always wanted me to be the best I can be, and like, don’t get me wrong, my mom’s the best, but she’s sick. One of those degenerative diseases even modern medicine can’t cure. And I…”

He trails off, finishing his drink and pouring another because he speaks again. But when he does, there’s a vulnerability in his voice that Kim’s never heard before. “I hate the idea of leaving her alone. She’s always telling me to go. To not put my life on hold for her. But if I die out here...she’ll be all alone and will never know what happened….so yeah. That’s me.”

No one says anything after he finishes. There’s nothing they can say. 

It’s Billy who finally breaks the silence. “I joined Starfleet because of my dad. He was an engineer too. A warp core specialist. But he died at the Battle of Wolf 359. Thirteen years, four months, and ten days ago. I still talk to him sometimes. When I record my logs I pretend I’m talking to him. But I miss him less now, since I’ve been here, with all of you.”

“Hey Billy,” Zack asks after a while. “Why were you on probation anyways.”

It’s something Kim has wondered herself. Billy’s not the type of guy to ever be in danger of expulsion.

“Oh that’s easy,” he answers lightly, unperturbed by the question. “I blew up my quarters.”

Zack laughs and even Jason cracks a fond smile. “How’d you manage that?”

“I had a very sensitive project that wasn’t supposed to leave the lab, but I could monitor it better in my quarters and well…” he mimes an explosion. “But Kimberly Hart was also on probation so…”

Kim freezes when the others look at her. She’s not at all prepared to explain herself to them. But they’re looking at her and everyone else has been so honest and it’s too much right then. She can’t lose them like this. “Skip me. Not tonight.”

The disappointed way Jason looks at her cuts her to her core, but she can’t find it within herself to be brave. She never has been.

But it’s Trini’s look - more curiosity than anything, at the way Kim’s voice cracks and pitches up, betraying her desperation and panic - that makes her wish she were a better person. A stronger one. 

It’s Zack who saves her this time, and god, she loves him in that moment.

“What about you, boss? How did the golden boy end up here with the fuck ups?” He asks, turning the conversation away from her. If she could feel anything other than shame in that moment she would be grateful that he seems to know exactly what she needed.

“I don’t know what there is to say, really.” Jason shifts uncomfortably and for a second Kim thinks he might also skirt the question. But he’s braver than she is. “Remember that cow wearing an admiral’s uniform that showed up on that quad the first week of term?”

“That was you?” Trini asks, sounding mildly impressed.

“Not just me, but yeah.” Jason fidgets in his seat, clearly embarrassed. He takes a sip of his drink before continuing. “I’ve been on this path as long as I can remember. My dad enlisted and served in the war with the Cardassians, and, well, he’s always wanted me to be better than him. So ever since I was a kid he’s pushed me to be better. To be the officer he never got to be. And I guess I just...wanted to do all the dumb shit I never got to do because I was studying for entrance exams and not being a kid. To, I don’t know, feel in control of my life for once.”

“Did it work?” Kim asks, voice quiet. “Did you feel better?”

Jason looks at her with a sadness she understands all too well. “No.”

The moment stretches on well past comfort and it’s Zack again who saves her, turning to Trini this time. “That just leaves you, crazy girl.”

“Well, as long as we’re bearing our souls…” Trini finishes her drink, holding her glass up in a mock toast before she speaks again. “I was a Starfleet brat. Never stayed in one places for long, bouncing from ship to starbase to whatever new posting was best for my mom’s career. I even lived on the  _ Enterprise _ for a couple years as a kid...I hated it. I felt like luggage, always being carted around, regardless of what I wanted. I learned that I can only rely on myself....my parents didn’t want me to join. They want me to have a normal life, whatever that means, but I don’t know how to live any other way. How to do anything else.

“You should hear my mom,” Trini pitches her voice up and makes a pinched face. “‘Trinity how will you ever meet a nice girl and settle down if you’re off traipsing around the galaxy? How will you ever give me grandkids?’...I guess she was right.”

Kim wants nothing more than to reach across the table and take Trini’s hand. To tell her she’s not alone. But she can’t. She hasn’t earned that right. So she looks at her hands and tries not to care.

“So, going back to the cow on the quad. I have questions,” Zack says, turning back to Jason. “First, where did you get a cow? And second, how did you get the admiral’s uniform on it?”

Jason laughs and the tension drains out of the room. “Beefcake and I had a connection.”

They spend the rest of the evening swapping stories and telling jokes and by the time the brandy is gone and they’re all struggling to stay away, Kim can almost forget her own cowardice. Almost.

 

***

 

Kim lays awake in her bunk, the thin blanket not doing much to stave off the cold that permeates the ship at night. Despite the warmth from the brandy sleep eludes her. She keeps thinking about earlier. About how she’s probably going to die and she still couldn’t bring herself to be honest with these people she’s come to care about.

Eventually she gives up and wanders into the cockpit where Jason’s sitting, keeping watch.

“You’re not on watch tonight,” he says, a question in his voice.

“Couldn’t sleep.” She shrugs and lowers herself into the seat next to him.

“Want to talk about it?” he asks after a while.

When she doesn’t answer Jason sighs and tries again. “You seemed kind of freaked out earlier, when Billy asked why you’re on probation.”

She stares out the window at the storm, a dark swirl lit only by the sporadic flash of lightning. She owes him the truth, if nothing else. 

“I deserve to be here. Admiral Zordon was right. I shouldn’t be in Starfleet.” She doesn’t look at him, but she can feel the way he’s about to protest, to tell her that she’s wrong. “Did you hear about the holodeck accident that injured two people?”

“Uh, yeah,” he says, clearly confused. “Amanda Clark and Ty Fleming both ended up in the hospital.”

“That was my fault.” She finally looks at him and finds him studying her, waiting patiently for an explanation. “We were on one of those simulated missions. A week in a shuttlecraft to test our endurance. I was in command. I thought it was going great, spending a week with my boyfriend and my best friend. But four days in I went to switch shifts and found them...well…”

It’s harder than she expected to talk about. She swallows and takes a shaky breath, trying to find the courage to start again. “I was just so angry. So I set the shuttle to crash into the nearest asteroid and I left. Walked away from my duty. If it hadn’t been for the holodeck safeties they would have died.”

It’s a long time before Jason says anything, but when he does speak his voice is kinder than she deserves. “You did a horrible thing, but that doesn’t make you a bad person.” 

“I almost killed two people, Jason. I’m unfit for command. Unfit for Starfleet.”

He shakes his head. “Do you regret what you did?”

“Yes.”

“Would you ever do something like that again?”

“No. I…” She sees what he’s getting at, but it doesn’t make it better. Doesn’t erase what she did. “I hate what I did. I never want to feel like that again.”

“Look. We’ve all made mistakes. Done stuff we regret.” He says it with so much understanding it makes Kim want to shake him, scream at him until he believes her. Or maybe just cry. “But everything you’ve done on this mission has proven that you belong in Starfleet. We couldn’t have gotten as far as we have without you. If we get out of here - when we get out of here - it’s gonna be as much because of you as any of us. You can’t let one mistake define you.”

They sit in silence for a long time after that. She watches the storm and he watches her. It occurs to her that Jason believes what he’s saying. He believes in her. And if he can believe in her, maybe she can too. 

“You’re gonna make a good captain someday,” she says after a while, getting up.

Before she can leave he turns to her, understanding in his eyes. “You will too.”

Kim thinks she might just let herself believe him. It’s a nice thought, if nothing else.

She leaves Jason to his lonely watch and heads back to bed. But before she can hoist herself into her bunk she hears Trini stir in the bunk below. “Kim?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

Trini shakes her head, blinking up at her in the dim light. “You didn’t. It’s too cold to sleep.”

That gives Kim an idea. It’s a bad idea, but admittedly she’s exhausted and she doesn’t want to alone right then, and well, the counselor they’d made her speak to as a condition of her probation had characterized her as impulsive. “Scoot over.”

Trini looks confused but she moves closer to the wall.

“Uh, Kim,” Trini asks as Kim climbs into the bunk with her. “What are you doing?”

“Huddling together for warmth,” Kim says, pulling the blanket over her and trying to get comfortable. It’s a good thing Trini’s small because even with their bodies pressed together there’s barely space in the bunk for two. “I’ll leave if you’re uncomfortable.”

For a moment Kim thinks Trini’s going to protest, but she doesn’t. Snuggling closer instead. “Stay. You’re warm.”

Kim can’t help but smile. She pulls the blanket up and enjoys the feeling of being close to someone again. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is probably the most technobabble heavy one, so you have been warned or whatever. I'm not even gonna apologize though because making up fake science was much more fun than doing the actual science that I was supposed to be doing, so there's that.
> 
> Also, a huge shoutout to everyone who's left comments and kudos on this story so far, I really really appreciate it!

Kim wakes up feeling - well, not exactly refreshed but certainly less exhausted for the first time in what feels like an eternity.

She also wakes up with a mouthful of hair. Trini turns out to be a clingy sleeper, and at some point during the night she nuzzled into the base of Kim’s neck.

When Kim tries to move she finds herself held fast, one of Trini’s arms slung over her waist and the other holding tightly to Kim’s tank top.

Kim smiles down at her softly, because it really is adorable. But she does need to get up, so she attempts to extricate herself without waking the other girl. Trini huffs slightly when Kim finally frees herself, but she doesn’t wake, instead rolling into the spot Kim just vacated and pulling the blanket over her head.

In the main cabin Kim finds Billy and Jason sitting at the table over what looks like all the tricorders they brought with them.

Jason looks up and smiles in a way that feels too knowing for her comfort. “What?”

“Nothing,” he says, shaking his head, clearly amused. 

She suddenly feels very exposed, and busies herself finding rations.

Trini wanders out of the crew quarters and squints blearily down at the array of tricorders Billy is working on.

“I don’t want to know,” she says, sitting down and grabbing a ration pack from Kim. She bites into it and makes a face. “What is this supposed to be?”

“Oatmeal,” Kim says flatly.

“It’s interesting,” Billy says, with more enthusiasm than Kim can imagine feeling about emergency rations. “Field rations have been prepared using essentially the same dehydration and preservation techniques since the mid twentieth century. The only substantial changes have been to the nutrient content, which is now so dense that they provide all the nutrition you need for three days. Of course, that’s within average nutritional -”

“Wait,” Trini says, cutting Billy off. “You’re saying I don’t need to suffer through these every day?”

“No, in fact -”

“Thanks god.” Trini drops her ration pack onto the table where it lands with a thud. One of the tricorders is bumped askew and Billy rushes to put in back in its place.

“What is all this anyways?” Kim asks.

“I was thinking about the problem with the ship’s power,” Billy explains. “I realized that the problem isn’t with the ship. Something external is draining the power. So I reexamined the signal patterns from the storm and I found a local subspace distortion that shouldn’t be there. And if there’s a signal we can triangulate it and find the source.”

“I don’t remember there being anything unusual in the subspace field,” Trini says, brow furrowed in thought.

“I didn’t see it at first either,” Billy says. “It’s a low frequency ninety degree pulse that’s tuned to the carrier frequency of our ship’s main power grid. Almost impossible to detect. Similar to what the Borg use to network their collective consciousness.”

That gets Kim’s attention. “The Borg? They haven’t been reported in this part of the galaxy for nearly a decade.”

“Oh no no no. It’s not the Borg. I don’t think so at least,” Billy explains quickly. “The frequency pattern is all wrong. They use something closer to an oscillating subspace pulse to eliminate the need to phase the signal. This is a phase modulating ninety degree pulse. I was just telling Jason that I thought to look for it because I saw Commander Laforge give a talk on Borg tech and networking at the Academy last year and he mentioned how difficult it was to isolate their subspace communication frequency and -”

“Whoa there, Billy,” Jason says, cutting him off, although not unkindly.

Billy stops, looking apologetic.

“You said we could triangulate it?” Trini asks, examining the tricorders he’s set up. 

“That’s what the tricorders are for,” he says. “I've programmed them to detect the field. If we restart the ship and track how the field vector changes when the power drain occurs we should be able to find a source. Assuming there is a single source of course.”

Kim’s impressed, and from the look on Trini’s face she’s not the only one. It’s the first real plan they’ve had, and, if nothing else, it gives them something to work on. And if anyone can figure out what’s going on it’s Billy.

“Show me how you’ve configured the tricorders,” Trini says, and Billy happily obliges. 

Kim watches them talk shop. She’s surprised by how natural it feels to see the two of them arguing over the most effective tricorder settings given that they didn’t even know each other a month ago. But the same could said for the fondness she herself now feels for all of the others. If they can manage to get out of this...well, that’s asking a lot.

She gets up, but before she can leave Jason pulls her aside.

“There’s a problem,” he says, balancing himself against the bulkhead to take the weight off his bad leg. “The auxiliary power core only has enough power left for two full restarts. Which means we have one shot at this. One restart to try and identify whatever’s draining the power and one to get the ship up and running again.”

Kim had known that they were running low on auxiliary power but she hadn’t realized the situation was so dire. Nothing on this damn rock could easy, could it?

“We’ll just have to get it right on the first try then,” she says, putting on a brave face.

One of her instructors at the Academy once told them that half of leadership is getting others to believe in you even when you don’t believe in yourself. And the way Jason’s looking at her tells her everything she needs to know about the truth of that statement.

So she feigns confidence she doesn’t feel and tells him what he needs to hear. “If anyone can figure this out it’s Billy. We’ll make it work.”

She hopes it’s true.

 

***

 

“Now Kimberly!” Bily calls from the back of the ship.

Kim inputs the computer startup sequence and watches as the console lights up and then, just like the last time, flickers and dies. Even though she knows that it’s what’s supposed to happen, it’s still kind of depressing. A part of her hoped that it was all a mistake, and that this time the ship would come back to life.

She sighs and Trini looks up from her tricorder, a question in her eyes.

“Do you think this will work?” Kim asks, running a hand through her hair. “In your scientific opinion or whatever?”

Trini scoffs. “In my scientific opinion I have no fucking clue. But it’s the best chance we’ve got.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

Kim knows the answer. She knows what will happen if they can’t get off this moon before they run out of water, which, according to Zack, will be the day after tomorrow. But she wants to hear someone else say it. To acknowledge the weight that hangs unspoken between them.

“Then we die.” The straightforward way Trini says it takes Kim by surprise. But when she finally meets Trini’s gaze she finds that same look she had back in the shuttle bay on the  _ Hood _ -like she’s trying to puzzle Kim out. But there’s a warmth there too. And when she speaks again its with more tenderness than Kim has ever heard from her. “But I wouldn’t want to die with anyone else.”

For a second Kim is overcome by the desire to reach out. To take Trini’s hand or touch her face or maybe even kiss her. Trini’s eyes flicker down to Kim’s lips and for a moment Kim is sure that she’s thinking the same thing. But before she can act on it Trini’s tricorder beeps loudly and the spell is broken.

Kim follows Trini to the back of the ship, wondering what it all means. Or if it means anything at all.

Zack brings the third tricorder in from where he’d been stationed out in the storm and Billy gets to work. A tense silence descends over the group, punctuated only by the occasional beep for a tricorder.

When Billy finally looks up he has a triumphant grin on his face. “I found it! Well, I think I found it. Can’t really be sure until we get there, but I was able to triangulate a location for the likely origin of the subspace field approximately one kilometer from here.”

Jason turns to her. “Kim, take the others and investigate. I’ll stay here with the ship.”

He gestures at his injured leg, and it makes sense regardless. Always leave someone with the ship is practically rule one of away missions.

“We won’t have communications without the ship’s computer,” Billy says. “But I’ve networked the tricorders together so we can send a crude signal through them if we need to. Do you know morse code?”

“Not well,” Jason admits. “But enough to get by.”

“Hopefully we won’t need it,” Kim says, trying to sound optimistic. Jason doesn’t look like he believes her, and frankly, she doesn’t blame him.

“This sounds like a job for the big guns,” Zack says, pulling out a phaser rifle.

“Are there more of those?” Trini asks, eyeing it.

“What’s your weapons certification?” Zack asks. When Trini makes a face he smirks and tosses her a hand phaser. “Didn’t think so.”

“You’re no fun,” she complains, holstering the phase with a pout.

Kim hides a smile as she accepts a phaser form Zack. It’s such a normal interaction. Like something that would happen on the weapons range or the parade ground back at the Academy, where the stakes are so much lower.

Kim takes a breath and looks around at the group. “Ready?”

They all nod and Zack brandishes his rifle. “Let’s go kick some mysterious subspace phenomenon ass.”

Billy leads them out into the storm. They take up a standard formation with Billy leading with his tricorder and Zack following at the rear. Kim falls in next to Trini. It’s comforting in a way she wasn’t expected - having the other girl by her side. A bulwark against the storm.

The wind whips dust into her face, and Kim has to squint to see in the semi darkness. She follows closely behind Billy - barely more than a dark outline in front of her. The terrain isn’t particularly harsh, but the dust and darkness make it hard to navigate and they slowly pick their way through rocky outcroppings.

They walk for nearly half an hour before Billy stops, consulting his tricorder. He takes a sharp left turn and leads them out of the wind into the mouth of a shallow cave. “This is it.”

Zack clicks on a palm beacon and shines it around the cave. The light glints off of a large gold box standing on what looks like an alter in the middle of the cave. They slowly approach it, Billy’s tricorder beeping loudly as they get close.

“The subspace signal is definitely emanating from whatever this is,” Billy says.

Trini runs her own tricorder over the box. “It’s hollow. I think it’s some sort of container.”

“I thought this moon was uninhabited,” Kim says, looking at Zack who just shrugs.

“It is. There’s no evidence of intelligent life anywhere in this system.”

Kim considers their options. Opening the box seems like a bad idea, but it seems like the only chance they have of shutting off the signal.

“Zack, help me get this open,” she says, bracing herself against the lid. He joins her and they manage to shove the lid aside. 

Zack shines the light into the box. They all look at each other in shock.

“Is that a corpse?” Kim asks. The box contains what looks like the shriveled remains of some sort of alien.

Trini runs her tricorder over the remains. “I think so. And according to this it’s millions of years old.”

“How is that possible?”

No one has an answer for that.

Billy points at a large green jewel that rests on the corpse’s chest. “That appears to be the source of the signal.”

“Can you disable it?” Kim shivers involuntarily. This whole situation is starting to creep her out and she wants to get out of this cave as quickly as possible.

Billy reaches out to pick up the jewel but before he can touch it, the jewel lets out a bright flash of light and the corpse surges to life, grabbing Billy’s wrist.

Kim starts and jumps back, scrabbling for her phaser. Zack lets out something that sounds a lot like a scream. If they survive this Kim is definitely going to give him shit for it, but right now she’s too freaked out to care.

Billy flinches out of the thing’s grasp, stumbling back.

Before any of them can react there’s a burst of energy from the box - sarcophagus? - that sends them flying. 

Kim lands flat on her back. The impact knocks the wind out of her and she lays there, struggling to breath, for what feels like an eternity. The wind whistles past the mouth of the cave and there’s a scraping sound from the altar.

Her breath comes back slowly, and when she can move again she scrambles back, pressing her back against the rough rock wall of the cave.

The lid of the sarcophagus is on the floor and the corpse - now nearly fully reanimated - steps out of it, the bright green jewel in its chest casting sickly shadows on the walls. 

“It feels so good to be alive again,” the thing says. It - she? - moves in a strange, almost disjointed way that reminds Kim of a spider stalking its prey. And Kim gets the distinct feeling that they’re the prey - caught in a web designed to trap them and lead them here. 

“What - what are you?” Kim manages to get out.

“You don’t know?” She asks, looking almost taken aback. “It must have been longer than I thought. Why, I’m Rita Repulsa - the once and future ruler of this miserable little galaxy.”

Zack actually laughs at that. “Rita Repulsa? That sounds like something out of one of the stories my mom used to tell me.”

Rita stalks over to where he’s crouched against the far wall, leaning down to examine him. “And what do we have here?”

She runs her eerily long finger along the seam of his uniform collar, tracing the gold trim. “You always did like to cover your fear with a joke, didn’t you Yellow?”

Zack’s eyes widen in fear but before he can respond Rita moves on. In a split second she’s across the cave, lifting Trini off the ground by her neck.

Trini scrabbles at the hand closed around her throat and kicks at the air, but Rita just looks at her, head cocked as if she’s examining an interesting specimen. “You’re a feisty one, aren’t you Blue? So afraid of not fitting in. We could be good friends, you and I.”

Kim’s on her feet now, desperately searching for her phaser. Or any sort of weapon. She can’t find anything, but Trini’s face is starting to turn purple and Kim’s terrified that Rita’s about to kill her. “Put her down!”

Rita’s head whips around and she studies Kim. It makes her skin crawl, but Kim swallows her fear and doesn’t look away. “You care for her don’t you Red?”

Rita unceremoniously drops Trini, moving towards Kim with that same curious look. “Oh Red, always the leader. So brave, but so full of doubt. Maybe I should kill one of your friends, just to see what happens.”

She laughs and Kim wants to vomit.

“What do we have here?” Rita asks, spotting Billy as he tries to sneak towards the mouth of the cave. “Another Yellow? How strange.”

She picks him up - again by the throat - and hoist him over her head. “Why are there two Yellows? Explain.”

“What? I don’t...I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Billy says.

Kim spots Zack slowly creeping around to the mouth of the cave, eyeing his rifle, which rests a couple meters away. She makes eye contact with him and shakes her head minutely. His angle is all wrong and he’ll never make it to the rifle without Rita noticing.

Rita tightens her grip on Billy’s neck. “Tell me why you’re here, Yellow. Or I’ll kill you and all of your little friends.”

Rita’s back is to Kim, so she doesn’t notice as Kim pushes herself away from the wall.

Billy sputters and shakes his head as much as her grip on his throat will allow.

Kim charges Rita, tackling her to the ground. She drops Billy and next thing Kim knows she flying through the air, thrown free of the cave. 

Zack uses Rita’s distraction to dive for his rifle. He shoots the rock face above the cave, and it comes crashing down onto Rita.

Kim scrambles to her feet and grabs Billy, who landed nearest her, pulling him to his feet.

“Run!”

Zack fires off a couple more shots before turning and following the others as they run back towards the ship. The storm’s lifting, and without the wind kicking up dust the ship is visible in the distance. 

Kim glances back and sees the pile of rubble start to shift. She picks of speed, desperately trying to make eye contact with Jason and convey just how fucked they are.

He seems to get the message, because the ship’s nacelles flicker to life and the door swings open.

Kim’s foot catches a rock and she stumbles, her knee hitting the ground painfully. 

Trini turns back, offering her a hand and helping her up. “I got you.”

“Thanks,” Kim says.

Trini gives her a small smile and despite everything Kim can’t help but return it.

Zack catches up to them, shooting at Rita, who’s free of the rocks now and closing fast. “Now is really not the time.”

He’s right. Immanent death and all that.

Kim starts heading towards the ship, but she doesn’t drop Trini’s hand, and they close the last few meters together.

Kim practically pushes Trini into the ship and dives in after her. Zack lets off one more shot before hopping in and pulling the door closed behind him.

“What the fuck is that thing?” Jason asks as Kim joins him in the cockpit.

“Some sort of alien entity. Calls herself Rita Repulsa. Definitely trying to kill us,” Kim says, inputting the preflight sequence. The breathes a sigh of relief as the ship comes to life, the familiar hum of the thrusters filling the cockpit. She looks over at Jason. “Permission to get the fuck out of here?”

“Yeah, yes, go!” Jason says as Rita closes in on the ship. “Are the weapons online?”

“We have phasers, but only at half power,” Zack answers as Kim engages the thrusters and the ship lifts off the ground. 

“That’ll have to do,” Jason says. “Open fire.”

“Can’t get a lock. She’s moving too fast.”

Kim brings the nose of the ship up, trying to get out of the atmosphere as quickly as possible. Before she gets far there’s a loud thud from the back and the ship lurches. “What was that?”

“Rita’s on the back of the ship,” Trini reports, checking the sensors.

Whatever Rita’s doing drags them back down towards the surface. Kim increases the thrusters to maximum, but it doesn’t help. They’re still slowly being pulled backwards.

“Billy!” Jason yells. “Can you get her off?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Billy says over the comm. “Think Billy, think. Oh, that’s an idea. But it’s risky.”

“What is it, Billy?” Jason asks, his voice edged with panic.

“She’s right over the eject port for the warp core,” Billy explains. “If we jettison it, it should knock her off. And also blow her up.”

“That’ll blow us up too,” Zack protests. 

“Billy, how long will it take after ejecting for the core to detonate?” Kim asks, an idea forming.

“Four, five seconds at most.”

Jason looks at her, desperate. “You think you can fly us out before it detonates?”

“I think it’s the best plan we have,” Kim replies. She has no idea if she can do it, but they’ve made it this far. They only need to get lucky one more time.

“Okay,” Jason nodes, with more confidence than Kim feels. “Billy, do it.”

“Jettisoning the core in three...two..one…”

Kim powers down the thrusters and takes a deep breath. She can do this. She has to do this.

The ship shakes slightly when the core ejects. Right as she feels the force pulling them down release she opens the thrusters up all the way. The inertial dampeners take half a second to catch up, and she’s pushed back into her seat the g force as they accelerate.

“Hold on to something!”

The ship rattles as the core explodes, and Kim quickly adjust their angle, using the shockwave from the explosion to propel them out of the atmosphere.

Once they're in orbit Kim collapses back against her seat.

“Holy fuck,” Zack says, and Kim can hear Billy laughing over the comm. “I can’t believe that worked.”

“Putting out the general distress beacon now,” Jason says, relief clear in his voice. “That was a nice bit of flying.”

Kim smiles, amazed that it worked. That they survived. That she hadn’t gotten them all killed.

She turns to Trini, who’s looking at her with unguarded affection, and suddenly it’s all too much. So she does the only thing she can think to do. She closes the distance between them and kisses Trini.

For a second Trini freezes and Kim worries that she’s misjudged the situation, but then she grabs the front of Kim’s uniform and pulls her closer, kissing her back with equal fervor. It’s more of an emotional release than anything, relief mingled with adrenaline mostly. But it’s enough.

Zack wolf whistles and Kim pulls back, slightly embarrassed at making a scene. Trini gives Zack the finger, but she doesn’t look away from Kim. “You did it. You got us out.”

“We did it,” Kim replies. 

Trini smiles and kisses her again. Softly this time, full of something that tastes a lot like hope. 

Jason clears his throat. “A message is coming in.”

They break apart, and Kim goes back to her station, smoothing the front of her uniform self consciously. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” Jason says, smiling softly.

His hits a button and the message pops up on the view screen. A severe looking older woman with captain’s pips appears. “Hailing the USS  _ Colorado _ . This is Captain Maria Mann of the USS  _ Endeavor _ . We received your distress call.”

“This is Cadet Jason Scott, and boy are we glad to see you,” Jason says, relief evident in his voice. “We sustained damage during a training mission and had to jettison our warp core. We could use a lift to the nearest starbase.”

“Do you have injured crew members?” Captain Mann asks.

“We have injuries but nothing serious, sir. However, our training officer, Captain Malkor, was killed in the accident. We have his body on board.”

“Captain Malkor was a good officer. We served together during the war.” Mann shakes her head sadly. She looks at someone offscreen and then turns back to them. “Hold you position. We’ll be there in 18 hours.”

“Yes, sir.”

The viewscreen blinks off and Jason turns to Kim. “Put us in orbit around the planet just in case there’s any latent effects from Rita. I’d rather not spend the next 18 hours looking at this damn moon.”

Kim shifts their orbit from the moon to the planet and double checks the ship’s controls. They don’t seem to have sustained any additional damage from the explosion, but well, after the last week she can’t be too careful. “We’re all set.”

“And now we wait,” Jason says, stretching in his seat. “I’ll keep watch here if you want to get some sleep. We’ve had a long day.”

Kim wants to protest but the adrenaline is starting to wear off leaving her shaky and exhausted. Plus, well...she looks at Trini who seems to understand, and follows her back into the crew cabin.

They sit on the edge of a bunk, not looking at each other. Kim casts about trying to find words for how she feels. She’s never been good at this part.

“I meant it,” she says eventually, choosing her words carefully. “The kiss. It was heat of the moment, but I meant it.”

“Oh,” Trini says, and when Kim looks at her she finds a vulnerability she wasn’t expecting. “I meant it too.”

Kim lets out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Relief courses through her, surprising her with its strength. She hadn’t realized just how much she wants this.

She reaches out and cups Trini’s face, running her thumb across her cheek. “Good.”

Kim leans down and kisses Trini gently. She lets herself experience it this time - the way Trini’s lips feel against hers; the way her hand slides up Kim’s side, coming to rest on her ribs; the way she smells - the sharp scent of sweat and dirt cutting through the hermetic environment of the ship’s air filters. 

Eventually Trini pulls away and fixes Kim with a searching look. “And when we get back? When we have the Academy and our careers to worry about?”

It’s a fair question. Everyone knows ambitious Starfleet officers have to make sacrifices. And they’re on completely different tracks already. Who knows if they’ll ever serve together. Maybe it’s better to end this now, before either of them is forced to choose. 

Trini senses Kim’s hesitation and pulls back, her face blank. “I guess that’s it then.”

“No,” Kim says suddenly. She doesn’t want this to end. To hell with making sacrifices. She’s already made more than she can count and this - whatever this is - isn’t something she’s going to let slip away so easily. “I want this. And yeah, maybe it’s going to be hard, but I’m not willing to not even try. We didn’t drag ourselves off that godforsaken moon to not even try.”

It comes out in a rush, more heated than Kim intended. 

Trini looks startled, like she hadn’t expected Kim to care so much. And, well, Kim hadn’t expected it either. “You mean that?”

“I do.”

Trini looks at Kim for a long moment and then the tension goes out of her shoulders. She leans in, but she doesn’t kiss Kim this time, instead resting their foreheads together. “Good.” 

She pulls back and leans heavily against Kim, resting her head on her shoulder. Kim wraps her arm around her, pulling her close. She marvels at how natural it feels. Like they fit together in a way she hadn’t expected.

“Kim?” Trini asks after a while.

“Yeah?”

“Can we...can we just sleep? I’m exhausted.”

“Of course.”

Kim pulls them down onto the bunk, holding Trini close. They’re both dirty and gross, in desperate need of a shower, but Kim is too tired to care. 

Trini falls asleep almost instantly. Kim brushes her hair away from her face gently, feeling something a lot like contentment.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright, here it is! this entire chapter is more epilogue than anything, so there's that
> 
> this universe was so much fun to play with, and I sincerely hope it was as much fun to read as it was for me to write
> 
> thanks again to everyone who left feedback, especially the folks who followed along and left comments on multiple chapters - I truly cannot tell you how much I appreciated it

**STARDATE:** 57438.3

 

The investigation into what is officially being called the Angelus IV incident takes nearly a month.

They’re not supposed to talk about it, but word still gets around, as it always seems to. Kim once again finds herself the subject of rumors and speculation. But this time it’s different. This time, she’s not alone.

If she’s not with Trini she’s with Jason or Billy, and that’s only in the rare times all five of them aren’t together. Knowing that the others have her back - and that she has theirs - makes the whole thing bearable - the invasive questions and the interviews that border on interrogations and the third degree about every aspect of her service record.

They survived Rita. They can survive this.

She repeats it to herself as they wait outside Admiral Zordon’s office for the final ruling. 

The stakes seem so much higher now than they had when they’d been in this exact spot nearly three months ago, and the wait isn’t helping. Trini has a death grip on her hand and Zack paces back and forth nervously. Jason looks like he’s about to vomit and even Billy, the most optimistic of them, seems nervous.

Kim knows the feeling.

When they’re finally summoned into the office Billy turns to them. “We got this.”

The way he says it makes Kim believe that they just might get out of this with their careers intact. 

“The five of you were sent on a mission to prove that you could work together and perform at the level expected of Starfleet officers,” Admiral Zordon says without preamble. He looks at each of them in turn. Kim’s stomach clenches when he gets to her, but she doesn’t flinch. “To that end, you have performed not only admirably, but far above what can be expected of all but the most seasoned officers.”

Kim blinks in surprise, sure she’s hearing something wrong. Sure he can’t be saying…?

It takes all of her strength to maintain her composure and stand there, shoulders straight, as the admiral goes on.

“You overcame disaster, malfunction, and an active threat to bring your commanding officer’s body home, and you survived in what for most would be an untenable situation. In other circumstances we would award you with commendations, however, given the nature of the mission and your probationary status, we’ve decided remove the probation from your records and allow you to graduate with good standing and all honors that you have earned during your tenure here. You have proven yourselves more than capable and will all make fine Starfleet officers.”

He looks at each of them again, and this time Kim allows herself to smile slightly when she meets his eyes. She can see pride there, which is something she’s not accustomed to.

“Dismissed.”

Once they’re safely outside it really hits and they’re all hugging each other and Kim’s crying a bit and it’s like she can finally breathe again. It’s the type of scene she’d normally find embarrassing, but right now she doesn’t care in the slightest. 

Zack runs off, promising to return, and the rest of them cross the quad to the big oak tree on the edge of the parade ground. There are a couple of underclassmen sitting there but they leave as soon as they see them approaching. There are advantages to being the most talked about people on campus.

They spread out on the grass and it’s enough to just sit there with each other enjoying the late summer sun. 

“What’s this?” Jason asks when Zack comes back holding a bottle of something that looks suspiciously like Vulcan brandy.

“I told you we’d toast our non expulsion,” he says, pulling out five glasses. “But seeing as we drank the last bottle I had to get a new one.”

Kim can’t help but laugh as she sits up from where she’s laying on Trini’s lap. 

“What should we toast to?” she asks, accepting a glass from Zack.

“To not becoming the first cadets in nearly a decade to die in a training accident?” Trini suggests with a wry smile.

“To not being kicked out of school a month before graduation,” Zack says, with a laugh.

“How about to friendship,” Jason says, looking at Billy fondly.

Billy claps his hands excitedly. “Oh, I get it! Because that’s what I said the last time.”

“Exactly.” Jason smiles warmly and holds up his glass.

“To friendship.”

The brandy burns its way down but Kim doesn’t think the warm feeling in her chest is from the alcohol.

Ahead of them lies graduation and commissions and their first assignments. An uncertain future. And Kim has no idea when they’ll all be together again, but for the moment, it’s enough to be surrounded by her friends. People she loves. 

Trini bickers with Zack about what the best ship in the fleet is, and Billy chimes in to add technical information. Jason watches them affectionately before catching Kim’s eye and smiling.

He bumps her shoulder lightly. “See, I told you.”

“Told me what?”

“That I made the right choice making you my number two.”

Kim rolls her eyes but she can’t help but smile. Because she wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

**EPILOGUE**

 

**STARDATE:** 72583.4 

 

Kim reads over the information about the crew rotation. She’s already reviewed the files of nearly fifty new crew members but she still has almost a hundred to go. She’s definitely going to need more coffee.

It seems like the ensigns get younger every year, but Captain Riker would say that it’s not that they’re getting younger but that she’s getting older. He may be right, but that doesn’t make seeing the fresh faced young officers, right out of the Academy and eager to serve, any more jarring.

She sets down her PADD and goes to the food replicator to refill her coffee. She doesn’t love being stuck at the starbase with the  _ Titan _ gets repaired but at least the coffee here is better than the swill the ship’s food slots make.

When she gets back to her table she finds a man sitting in her seat, his back to her.

“Excuse me, but I was sitting there,” she says, trying to be polite, but too busy to try very hard.

“Well that’s unfortunate,” he says, turning around.

“Jason, I should have known it was you.” She shakes her head, noting the fourth pip on his collar and raising her eyebrow. “Or should I say, Captain Scott.”

He grins and pulls her into a hug. “It’s good to see you too. It’s been what? Three years?”

“More than that,” Kim says, taking the seat across from him. “I was still on the  _ Phoenix _ , so it’s been more like five years I think.”

“Too long. How’s Trini?” He asks.

“Swamped with overseeing the science lab upgrades at the moment, but other than that, she’s doing well,” Kim says fondly. “Being the  _ Titan _ ’s science officer has been good for her.”

“And you’re the operations officer. Not bad,” Jason says. “Although gold doesn’t suit you.”

“It’s good for my career. Plus, not many people can say they were Will Riker’s second officer.” Kim tugs self consciously at her uniform. As much as she loves Jason she can’t imagine he came all this way just for small talk. “Why are you here, Jason? Other than to gloat about making captain first.”

“But gloating is so much fun.” He leans forward, suddenly serious. “How much do you know about the new  _ Defiant  _ program?”

“Not much.” She’s head about it, but mostly through the rather non informative official announcements. “They’re getting a bunch of the old  _ Defiant  _ class ships and retrofitting them for...search and rescue I think? Makes sense. They’re fast, quiet, maneuverable.”

“That’s the official story at least,” Jason says. Kim raises an eyebrow, prompting him to continue. “I assume you’ve also heard about the increased Romulan activity along the Neutral Zone.”

“Of course. We were just there.”

He gives her a pointed look and she finally puts it together. “Oh. They’re using the cover of the search and rescue program to fortify the Neutral Zone border with warships. That’s...pretty clever actually. And more underhanded than I’d usually expect from Starfleet. But what does that have to do with you?”

“The want me to command one of them,” he explains. “Based out of Deep Space 7, with a crew complement of 50. The job’s officially search and rescue in and around the Neutral Zone, but it’s also surveillance and scouting. And being on call as a first responder if anything happens with the Romulans.”

“They couldn’t have picked someone better,” Kim says. She means it. It’s exactly the type of first command Jason will excel in.

“They’ve also given me complete control over my crew,” he says with a grin. “And I find myself in need of a first officer. The job’s yours if you want it.”

That stops Kim short. 

Because more than anything she wants the job. But even a retrofitted  _ Defiant  _ class ship won’t have a science lab. At least, not like the one on the  _ Titan _ .

“It comes with a promotion to full commander, plus I have a similar offer for Trini,” he says, sensing the source of her hesitation. “I need a science officer too. The staff won’t be as big as the one on the  _ Titan _ , but we’ll be charting all sorts of planets in the Neutral Zone that Starfleet has never sent scientists to before.”

“It’s tempting,” Kim says. “But I can’t make any promises. Let me talk to Trini about it.”

“I want to get the gang back together. Billy and Zack are onboard already, but it won’t be the same without you and Trini.” He leans forward with a smile. “Let me put you back in red where you belong, Kim.”

 

***

 

“I hate upgrades,” Trini says that night, collapsing on their bed fully clothed. “I spent four hours in a meeting about new sensor arrays today, and the worst part is no one could actually make a decision.”

“I’ll trade you the hundred and fifty personnel reports I read today for the crew rotation,” Kim says with a soft smile, putting down the PADD she was reading.

“Ugh.” Trini rolls over and snuggles up to Kim. “Why did we join Starfleet again?”

Kim laughs and runs her hand through Trini’s hair, combing out the tight braid she wears it in on duty. “For the adventure I think.”

Trini groans.

“You’ll never guess who I saw today,” Kim says after a while.

Trini narrows her eyes. “If it was one of your parents here on some sort of surprise inspection I refuse.”

“You refuse?” Kim asks skeptically.

“Yes. I refuse,” Trini says. “I can’t spend all day in meeting and then go listen to your dad tell me to switch to operations because science officers never make captain.”

“Fair enough,” Kim says lightly. It’s an old argument that she doesn’t feel like relitigating at the moment. And it’s beside the point anyways. “But it wasn’t my dad. It was Jason. Or I guess I should call him Captain Scott now.”

“Oh yeah, I heard he got promoted,” Trini says, perking up. “What did he want? Other than to gloat about making captain first?”

Kim hesitates. She feels bad even asking, after the years Trini spent at Utopia Planitia - putting off getting to serve on a starship - just so Kim could be a test pilot. But she can’t not tell her. 

“He’s been given command of a  _ Defiant  _ class ship out of Deep Space 7, doing search and rescue,” she explains. “He asked me to be his first officer.”

Trini props herself up on her elbow and looks at Kim. “They’re giving him a warship to do search and rescue along the Neutral Zone border?”

“They’re fortifying the border, and the old  _ Defiants _ are perfect for short runs in and out of the Neutral Zone.”

“And you’d be first officer?”

Kim nods. “And you’d be the science officer. If you want it. Or you could run a lab on the station if you’d prefer.”

Trini gives Kim a searching look, before shrugging. “You know, all those planets in the Neutral Zone have never been surveyed with modern scientific equipment. Everything we know about them is over a century out of date.”

That sounds a lot more like agreement than Kim expected. “We don’t have to take it. We can stay here if you’d prefer. I know the  _ Titan  _ is better for your career.”

“Nah. This’ll be one step closer to my true goal of being a captain’s wife,” Trini says, grinning in a way that is too reminiscent of Zack for Kim’s comfort. “Besides, I don’t get to do real science here. All I do is manage people and read reports.”

“As long as you’re sure,” Kim says. She wants the job maybe more than she’s wanted any job since she left Mars, but not at the expense of her wife’s career.

“I’m sure,” Trini says, smiling softly. She leans over and kisses Kim. It’s quick and soft, and in all the years they’ve been together Kim has never tired of this. Of kissing Trini. “Let’s go have an adventure.”

 

**STARDATE:** 72611.2

 

Kim tugs on her uniform shift and smooths it out. It’s new and still stiff with starch, but she doesn’t miss the gold she wore for the last several years.

“Stop fussing, you look fine,” Trini says, rolling her eyes. “Besides, it’s just Jason.”

“I’m the first officer of this ship,” Kim replies, running her thumb over her pips to make sure the new one is in place. “I have to make a good impression if I want the crew to respect me.”

“Kim, look at me,” Trini says, tugging Kim’s hand away from her collar.

Kim obeys, looking down at the woman she somehow got lucky enough to spend her life with.

Trini leans up and kisses Kim gently. “You’ll do great. Now, stop worrying and get in there.”

Before Kim can react, Trini spins her around and practically shoves her through the door to the bridge. She manages to catch herself before the door slides open, so her entrance isn’t totally undignified. 

The bridge is smaller than the  _ Titan _ ’s, with only a handful of stations surrounding a single seat for the captain. Jason stands in front of it, cutting a dashing figure in his captain’s uniform. Billy gives her a small wave from the engineering statin and Zack grins as Trini, who follows Kim onto the bridge. 

Kim stops in front of Jason and stands at attention. “Commander Kimberly Hart reporting for duty, sir.”

“Lieutenant Commander Trinity Gomez reporting for duty,” Trini says, doing the same.

Jason smiles and Kim feels herself relax. This is going to be a good posting, she can already tell. “Commander Hart, Commander Gomez, welcome aboard the USS  _ Ranger _ . You already know Commander Cranston our chief engineer and our operations officer Lieutenant Commander Taylor.”

Jason nods at Billy and Zack, who both look like they’re trying very hard to contain their excitement. And Kim can’t blame them. Never in a million years did she think they’d all get to serve together again.

“And the final member of our bridge crew is Lieutenant Tommy Oliver, our tactical officer,” Jason says, indicating a dark haired woman who looks more than bit intimidated by the proceedings. 

Trini takes her place at the science station, but not before giving Kim an encouraging smile.

“The helm is yours, Commander Hart,” Jason says. “Oh, and Commander?”

When Kim looks at him he’s got a mischievous glint in his eye. “Sir?”

“Try not to crash the ship this time.”

Kim makes a face as Zack and Trini both laugh. Lieutenant Oliver blanches and looks genuinely concerned. Jason, for his part, looks a bit too pleased with himself, and Kim isn’t about to let him get away with that just because he’s the captain. “Noted, but sir, if I may?”

“Yes?” 

“In future it’s probably best not to terrify your bridge officers,” she says innocently. 

He looks over at where Lt. Oliver looks more lost than anything, and has the good grace to look contrite. “You make a good point, Commander. I knew I made a good choice making you my first officer. Now, if you’ll please lay in a course for Thadeus III. Warp 3.

Kim takes her seat, taking a moment to appreciate getting to fly a ship again before inputting the coordinates. She smiles to herself. The  _ Ranger  _ already feels like home. “Course laid in, sir.”

Jason takes a seat in his captain’s chair and looks around the bridge with a smile. 

“Engage.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh man at the end there we got very star trek-y, because I couldn't help myself (and also I love the Romulans with my whole entire heart and no matter what happened in Nemesis (fuck Nemesis) I don't think they'll ever stop scheming and giving the Federation trouble)

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at blackholesymposium if you want to argue about Power Ranger or Star Trek or how ST: Enterprise has the best tv theme song of all time


End file.
